An important goal in playing sports is to win. Often that means proper play execution, good ball control, good grip and feel, and proper form in the sports fundamentals. Gloves and other types of hand covers are permitted in most sports. Many individuals use gloves to enhance, in some way, their competitive edge. Indeed, gloves have become so important that different types of gloves have been created for different sports. Even within a sport, different types of gloves have been invented to, among other things, maximize performance in specific tasks.
The use of gloves can increase performance especially when the user needs to grip an object like a ball or golf club, for example. Although generally useful, using prior art conventional gloves in some sports can come with significant drawbacks, especially if a user must use their hands to feel in addition to simply grip an object.
In Golf for example, a golfer grabs a golf club with both hands, and must use his or her hands to grip as well as ‘feel’ the golf club throughout the golf swing.
This ability to feel is critical when swinging a golf club. Once a golfer begins a golf swing, the golfer cannot not lose sight of the golf ball until impact occurs with the golf ball. Consequently, the golfer must use tactile sensations on the hands to feel if the golf club is on the correct swing plane throughout the golf swing. Once the golf swing begins, the golfer can no longer look at the golf club and must continue to look at the golf ball.
This need to feel the golf club with a hand has therefore resulted in golfers having to make a difficult choice. Although clearly these players would benefit from added grip enhancers on their hand to increase their control and accuracy, prior art gloves have forced a golfer to choose between all feel and no feel.
Playing the sport of golf without the help of gloves, however, can also be an inferior choice. Quite often a golfer's success requires swinging the golf club to produce significant club speed, especially when teeing off at the beginning of each hole. As the velocity of the golf club increases, it becomes increasingly more difficult to maintain a tight grip on the club; this is especially true at the point of impact with the golf ball. Virtually all active golfers have chosen therefore to enhance grip capabilities and therefore sacrifice the ability to better feel the golf club.
Golfers have generally decided to wear a glove on their weak-hand, thereby increasing the overall grip of the weak hand but, because prior art weak-hand golf gloves are full fingered and therefore cover all of the user's fingers, the weak hand loses significant tactile capabilities. Cognizant of this major deficiency, most golfers will not wear a glove on their dominant hand, presumably to compensate for the loss of tactile sensation from wearing a glove on their weak-hand.
Although this method of gripping a golf club, by wearing only one golf glove, does provide some tactile sensation, the tactile sensation is limited to only the dominant hand so that the weak hand loses significant tactile sensations. This limitation of only allowing skin contact by the dominant hand has often resulted in several problems such as: difficulty in weak-hand and dominant hand coordination because skin contact between hands is blocked by the glove; difficulty in assessing proper golf club positioning by the weak-hand throughout the golf swing; and difficulty in getting proper feedback from weak-hand sensations if one completes an improper golf swing.
An additional concern with prior art is not configuring golf gloves that meet the different requirement, based on a user's preferred golf grip.
One very popular golf club grip, for example, is called the interlocking grip. When you use this grip, the forefinger of the golfer's weak-hand is placed over and wrapped around the strong (dominant) hand's pinkie finger. With this grip, clearly the role of the interlocked fingers has as much to do with grip as it does with coordination and feel between the user's two hands to more effectively control the golf swing and to provide greater overall golf swing consistency. There is, therefore, no real need to cover all of the weak hand's forefinger, which touches the dominant hand's interlocked pinkie finger, and uncovering at least part if not all of the forefinger would actually significantly increase overall coordination by allowing the now uncovered portion of the weak hand's forefinger to touch the skin of the dominant hand's pinkie finger.
Only most recently have gloves attempted to be configured to meet the basic needs for golfers using the interlocking grip by leaving at least partially uncovered the forefinger of a user's weak hand thereby providing added tactile sensations on the weak hand's interlocking forefinger.
Whereas users of these partial-fingered gloves now have greatly improved tactile sensations on the weak hand's interlocked forefinger, no improvements have been made to increase the grip of the strong hand's interlocked pinkie finger, a vital ingredient to maximizing overall hand coordination and golf swing using the interlocked grip method.
Most conventional golf gloves, for example, have ventilation recesses along the dorsal portion of the digital segments including on the forefinger which of course can be counterproductive and problematic especially when gripping a golf club using the interlocking grip. Conventional golf gloves provide recesses on the proximal phalanx of the forefinger which of course channel perspiration to this area, albeit small amounts. This is problematic because the strong hand's pinkie finger interlocks and resides over the forefinger's proximal phalanx. Intentionally trying to channel moisture to this interlocked area will clearly cause unnecessary slipping between the two interlocked fingers and further hinder the user's ability to perform a unison, coordinated golf swing.
Solving these unrecognized problems, as embodiments of the present invention provides, will go a long way to significantly enhance consistent golf swing control, especially during hotter weather conditions. Some embodiments include a forefinger segment without any moisture management recesses along the proximal phalanx on the forefinger segment and/or along portions of the middle finger segment, where the strong hand's pinkie finger usually rests on the weak hand.
Providing a more strategic grip management system will create a firmer contact between the fingers of both hands, and therefore a more controlled golf swing for those using the interlocking grip.
There is also a long existing need for a device that could offer better hand coordination between a golfer's strong hand and weak hand without significantly diminishing a golfer's ability to adequately grip the golf club. Golfers often have to fight completing a ‘slice.’ When a golfer hits a slice, the golf ball flies to the far outside (far right for a right-handed golfer or far left for a left-handed golfer).
A slice can take place for several reasons. One reason has to do with the dominant hand not moving at the same rate and angle as the weak hand during a golf swing, or not unhinging at the same time. If there is even the slightest separation between the two hands during the golf swing, the club face will not be square at impact; the resulting open face impact will inevitably result in a slice.
An ideal location to minimize hand separation is clearly around and between the two interlocked fingers.
Currently, the ungloved strong hand's pinkie finger has no real targeted, stabile material where it could reasonably maintain a firm hold as a golf club moves over 100 miles per hour, through impact. Prior art dorsal segments—or the back of gloves—are intended for protection and without recognition of the need for providing some added grip support.
Consequently, users with prior art partial fingered gloves will have an unstable pinkie finger grip, especially when dealing with moisture, through harsh climate or from perspiration on the pinkie finger. This slipping, even slight, can result in some separation or delay in hand motion, the results would of course be disaster on a golfer score card.
Embodiments of the present invention would therefore offer significant improvements to prior art by offering strategically placed grip enhancing improvements to gloves tailored especially for users who grip a golf club using the conventional interlocking method—gloves which leave at least the fingertips of the forefinger uncovered on the weak hand of a user.
The present invention will provide a glove for the weak hand whereby the user may both better grip a golf club as well as maintain enhanced tactile sensitivities on parts of the otherwise gloved hand, and simultaneously enhancing grip capabilities by providing strategically positioned grip enhancers for the interlocked pinkie finger.
According to the GolfSmith website, many golfers choose the interlocking grip instead of the Overlapping Grip Method because they desire greater unity in their golf swing, because they have relatively smaller hands, or because they have weaker hands and need added grip. Thus, providing even greater grip potential for those using the interlocking grip method, as the present invention provides, would certainly be welcome. “A common reason players choose one grip over another is their desire to create unity between their hands. When you swing your club, your wrists act as a hinge. However, if your hands become separated during the swing, each wrist can act separately and your hands can interfere with each other,” writes Mike Southern of GolfSmith.
The article goes on to state that ‘[Jack] Nicklaus said that he had relatively small hands, and that the interlocking grip allowed him to get a better grip with them. The more-common Vardon grip works better for players with large hands, since one of the fingers on the right hand has to wrap around the fingers of the left hand. With the interlocking grip, all of the fingers are close to the actual cushioned grip. Even the two interlocked fingers don't cause large gaps underneath. Nicklaus also recommends the interlocking grip for players with weak hands. When your interlocked hands wrap around that cushioned grip, the club is locked in place with very little effort.”
Providing a solution to better solve these issues could, among other things, allow for greater golf swing control and consistency by providing a golfer with significantly enhanced support for a golfer's dominant (strong) hand grip and weak hand coordination requirements.
The present invention solves the above mentioned problems by, among other things, providing significant improvements to partially uncovered fingered gloves and providing significant grip support on critical areas on or around the interlocked fingers.